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Document Details : Title: The Temple of Ceres and the 'Plebeian' Aventine Author(s): WILKINSON, Luke Journal: Latomus Volume: 84 Issue: 2 Date: 2025 Pages: 362-386 DOI: 10.2143/LAT.84.2.3294651 Abstract : In the last decade, several scholars have proposed revisionist accounts of the Aventine’s designation as a 'plebeian' hill, arguing that this was a late republican ideological construct that had no firm historical basis. This article aims to mitigate the complete rejection of the hill’s 'plebeian' status. It argues that, although the evidence for a demographically 'plebeian' Aventine is weak, there is much stronger evidence for the Aventine possessing potent plebeian associations in the late Republic, dating back to the early and mid-republican periods. It argues that these strong associations began with, and centred upon, the cult of Ceres on the Aventine, which led to the programmatic development of the Aventine hill in the third century BC during an intense period of building by the plebeian aediles who were based at the temple, which cemented the contemporary identification of the hill as a 'plebeian district' by the late Republic. |
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